Of Academics and Achievements

John stared at the door for another minute, acutely aware of the emptiness that his companion had left behind.

Sighing with a mix of melancholy and satisfaction, he turned around, moving to finishing cleaning up after his date with Ela. That word brought a smile to his face - date. In silence, he moved through his house, shutting down the television and sound system they’d used for the movie, starting up the dishwasher, and finally storing away all the remaining pastry boxes.

All the while, his mind was wandering back through the events of the morning.

The foremost part of it was occupied with visions of his blonde companion. John wanted to etch every happy moment - every smile, every kiss - into his memory forever. His memory was alright, usually, but he wanted to make sure to cement all the little details. Unconsciously, he licked his lips, trying to remember what hers had tasted like.

“I think we both mostly tasted like honey butter,” he muttered, chuckling softly to himself. ’I’m gonna have some Pavlovian response to chicken biscuits now, aren’t I?’

The Gamer shook that thought off, making his way back up to his room. As he did so, he mentally shifted his attention to the remainder of his scattered questions, mostly more mechanical and practical ones, especially those concerning Ela’s parting comments about the Order of the Golden Rose. Considering how she seemed to hold the organization in such high regard, he wasn’t really surprised to find that she intended to rejoin them once she’d recovered - what he hadn’t expected was the suggestion that he follow suit.

He hadn’t even considered the possibility of doing so until she brought it up.

’I mean, I think I’ve done reasonably well on my own with what I’ve had thrown at me, all things considered,’ he thought, heading over to his closet. ’I’m alive, at least, so that counts for something.’

Pretty sure “staying alive” should be considered the bare minimum.

’...I think hitting the bare minimum is pretty good so far. That… wasn’t really guaranteed at all.’ A shudder ran down The Gamer’s spine as he thought back over every near-**** experience he’d had over the last three days. He could feel the creeping cold slinking down his back, a droplet of despair for each time he’d put one foot in the grave. ’I don’t want to know what the odds were of me making it through all of that.’

No, you don’t.

John sighed, focusing his inner voice on the goddess in his mind. ’I- maybe this doesn’t make any sense, but when I try out a new game, I don’t expect to just win right away. I’m not really sure what “winning” is supposed to look like when I’m talking about real life, but surviving these dungeons and the ambush, and this morning’s date with Ela? That seems like winning enough for me.’

He pulled out an old favorite shirt, clutching the well-worn cloth in his hands. “I don’t really know where I go from there, though…”

Despite his internal bravado, John knew that the Bookworm Knight was undoubtedly right, that the Abyss had proven itself quite dangerous, and that he’d proven himself equally unprepared.

The Gamer chuckled. ’No chance you’ve got any advice, I’m guessing? Maybe a quest?’

He heard no response to that, leaving him alone in his room with his thoughts. John sighed; Ela’s general suggestion was the prudent one, though he wasn’t sure her solution was quite as obviously correct. The one certainty was that he needed to find some kind of better support structure in the Abyss than “dating the hot blonde knight from school.” Although he’d signed the Writ of Protection with the Order already, the events of the previous day had proven that it wasn’t foolproof.

’I do wonder exactly how that happened. Moira’s their leader’s daughter - and some special paladin of Gaia - right? How did those guys manage to get to Ashcroft without them knowing?’ He shook his head, gathering the last of the clothes he needed before his shower. ’That’s a question for when I’m actually back over there.’

The Gamer wandered his way across the hall to his bathroom, completely lost in the ocean of his mind. ’Regardless of how or why it happened, it did, which means I should act like it could happen again.’

That train of thought just sent him back to the original question - should he ask about joining the Order? He hummed, musing over that question from different angles, trying to work out the pros and cons as best he could. A shrill hiss disturbed the quiet of the house as John turned on the shower, tallying things up mentally as he waited for the water to heat up.

From a purely practical perspective, Ela’s suggestion did make sense. The Order of the Golden Rose obviously possessed considerable resources, and they had experience with training new mages. Even if John still wasn’t entirely sure how extensive training would interact with his powers, he had managed to gain a healing spell from his time working with Ela, which meant that there was always a chance that he could learn other things from other places.

’In all honesty, there’s some argument that one of the base functions of my powers is an engine that helps me learn things quickly - at least as far as developing new skills seems to go…’ he mused, unequipping the clothes he’d been wearing and stepping under the hot spray of the shower.

On top of all of his previous thoughts, if Lord Brighton’s statements about the rarity of his powers were to be believed, then the Order might be the only place in the world he could find someone else with powers granted by Gaia herself. John wondered if that meant they’d have some kind of unique insight into the nature of his powers, though that sounded like wishful thinking, even to him.

He exhaled heavily, letting the warmth of the water wash over him. Stretching out his arms behind him, he groaned, letting the heat soothe the muscles he’d worked out.

’The issue with all of that is in the premise itself - I’d need to be willing to sign up for the Order in full,’ The Gamer thought, crossing his arms in front of him. ’Despite the fact that they’re clearly a huge part of Ela’s life, I know basically nothing about them. I got a crash course in their history on the drive over the first time, but that’s about it.’

He shook his head. ’I don’t know what they believe in, how they go about the whole “protecting the mundanes from the Abyss,” nothing at all.

’Heck, I’ve been told that they’re “basically” paladins, but I don’t really know what kind that means. Are they like old school D&D paladins where they’re so hard tethered to their alignment that they make everything worse? Or are they like newer ones where they’re focused on some kind of specific oath..?

’Those are just video game reference points, too. It could really be anything.’ He sighed, dropping his arms to his sides. “Mmm…”

In spite of those misgivings, part of John was strongly inclined to give the Order the benefit of the doubt because of Ela and Moira, though not all of him was so sure. The Bookworm Knight was someone he trusted quite a bit at this point, enough that he’d almost be willing to simply take her at her word about the Order’s intentions, but it was not impossible for her to be wrong, or simply have been blind to any issues because they’d raised her.

For the most part, both common sense and his general study of history told him to be wary of broadly powerful military organizations that felt they could justify their actions as divinely right. Ela was also self-admittedly of low rank within the organization. Her own strength of character did not necessarily preclude issues with the rest of the group.

Moira’s actions, however, did have more bearing in that regard. The redhead had been willing to die so that he and Ela could have survived. He’d seen the sadness and resolve in her eyes as she’d told him to run - that counted for a lot. Still, everyone and everything that he’d encountered in the Abyss so far had been telling him to NOT just trust anyone to anything that he ran into.

’This might be easier to judge if I actually knew anyone who wasn’t a part of the Order…’ he thought, finishing up his shower. ’Though, I suppose that the fact that basically everyone outside of them has tried to kill me so far says a lot.’

As he continued to ponder those thoughts, he did consider trying to talk to some of the other Ashcroft students that he’d observed as being Abyssal on Monday, though he honestly had no idea if it was safe to contact them, either. For all he knew, they could want him dead just as much as the gangsters. Plus, Ashcroft was closed while the Order investigated the attack, anyway. He didn’t exactly have contact information for that random assortment of his classmates.

’I suppose there’s always good ol’ book reading,’ John decided, smiling wryly as he shut the water off. ’I do have that history book somewhere… that the Order gave me… Maybe I should just see if the Abyss Auction has some resources I can buy. If I can at least find some neutral-ish accounts of what they’ve done, I can try to make some better judgments on my own.’

With that plan solidified for the time being, The Gamer made his way out of the shower, quickly drying himself off before equipping the fresh set of clothes that he’d laid out earlier. It was nice to finally be free from the layer of sweat he’d been sporting since his morning workout. Grabbing a second towel to run through his hair a second time, he made his way back to his room.

’I’m not even 100% sure what I should be looking for specifically,’ he thought, sitting down at his PC and turning it on. ’I suppose anything that tells me what the Order has actually done in the thousand-odd years they’ve been around for is a start.’

Logging on to his PC, he pulled up the Abyss Auction and got to digging. It didn’t take him long to find a plethora of results for anything and everything related to the Order. There were dozens and dozens of books on the Order and its history, entire libraries dedicated to studying the life and legacies of every Warden since the first. There were even “intelligence briefs” that were priced all the way up into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

He quickly realized that the problem wasn’t going to be finding information on the Order, it was going to be sorting through all of it to find anything useful.

It took him a while to finagle the Auction’s website, but he was eventually able to figure out how to add more specific filters and omit keywords. He started by filtering back down to his budget - there was no point in even seeing what thousands of dollars could buy him if he couldn’t possibly spend that much. After that, he moved on to trying to find more generic results, sources that recorded the Order’s history more generally, rather than focusing on one specific time period or one Warden’s command.

’I suppose a book on the current Lord-Protector wouldn’t be the worst idea…’ he thought, scrolling through a couple more pages. ’Ah! There we go.’

John was in luck - the Auction itself offered an academic primer package on the history of the Golden Rose. Its description explained that it was supposed to be an educational resource for Abyssal schools. That seemed like a decent enough starting point, presuming that he could trust it to be neutral.

’If I can’t… well, at some point, not trusting anything just loops back around on itself to being pointless,’ he decided, his cursor hovering precariously over the purchase button.

At a few hundred dollars, the thought of the expense did reflexively make him nauseous, though he reasoned that his textbooks for Ashcroft put together cost that much. Considering how wonky much of the Abyssal economy seemed to be, that didn’t seem too unreasonable. He still didn’t like it, but this was the only safe way he could think of to gather information on the Order.

With a few more clicks, he had the package ordered, watching with a glint of sadness in his eyes as the money disappeared from his character sheet. The Auction promised that the package would arrive in around half an hour, so he had some extra time to start going over all the notifications he’d gotten this morning until his homework arrived.

’I’ll only have a little time with the AA’s primer before I need to go back to the Order, so I’ll just have to try and see some highlights if I want to ask them any questions.’ He sighed. ’It’s not like I’m on the hook for a snap judgment on this or anything; I don’t need to make a decision immediately. I should pace this out…’

Shaking his head, The Gamer made his way back downstairs, intending to grab a drink before he moved on to his achievements and stuff. As he did so, he considered what Ela would think of his decision. If John was judging her character correctly, he didn’t think that she would be overly pushy or mad if he chose not to join, though he did get the feeling she would be disappointed.

’I suppose that if we’re together,’ his heart fluttered at the world, ’I ought to at least give some consideration to her feelings on the matter. Maybe I should ask her when we have more time…’

Putting that aside for the time being, he grabbed a soda from the fridge and moved back to the couch, stretching out and opening up his notifications. At some point after Ela had left, he’d gotten a fourth added to the pile. A part of him felt a pang of guilt at the thought of getting mechanical rewards for the magical time he’d had that morning. He certainly hadn’t done any of it just to power up, but the sour emotion remained with him for a few seconds regardless.

He reminded himself that these were rewards he’d gotten after the fact, not incentives that had affected anything he’d done, and then moved on to the first window, which was a simple, but expected, set of rewards for the beginning of the morning. The singular point in Libido seemed completely worthless, but he wasn’t going to complain about free stats.

’Taking my time? I’ve known her for three days!’

You’d be surprised how little time that is, in the Abyss.

’I-’ John took a moment to consider how often he’d come close to **** in the matter of a few days. ’I suppose that makes some sense. Still feels weird to say, though.’

His second window was the natural next step from the first, with boosted stats compared to the prior achievement, though still placing half its value in Libido. Nothing fancy, but still nothing to complain about.

I was originally going to give you a quest to do more with her, but I figured you would way overthink that.

John flushed, considering the implications of what the quest might have asked of him. ’Yeah. That’s… that’s probably for the best.’

As he moved to close it, he noticed one more difference between this and the last achievement. ’Oh, wait. “Shared.” Did Ela get experience for that achievement, too?’

She did.

’That’s really cool, actually. I wonder how close she is to another level. I’d like to test that theory of hers. If she’s right, it would be nice to finish whatever healing she still needs.’ The Gamer pursed his lips for a second, mulling that over. ’I wonder if my regular healing magic can do anything like that… probably not, but maybe if I upgraded it..?’

He frowned, adding that possibility to the long list of things he needed to explore about his abilities further. Then, he moved on to his third notification.

’...Upgrade?’

[Added to The Gamer’s Party Synergy - While John Newman and Ela Grzmot are both in the party, they each take 5% reduced damage.]

The Gamer’s eyes widened as he blinked a couple times, re-reading the small lines of text in front of him. Willing his UI into view, he opened up the tiny blurb underneath his name.

—
Gamer's Unity
Experience earned by The Gamer is shared to his companions while they are in a party.
While John Newman and Ela Grzmot are both in the party, they each take 5% reduced damage.

’...Oh wow, that’s a straight addition…’ he thought to himself, taking a long sip of his soda. ’Interesting. I guess it would make sense that my party contribution could evolve, but I don’t know if this is what I would have pictured doing it.’

John pondered that upgrade for a moment - what would five percent change in a fight? It could be the margin between life and ****, or perhaps the number was too small for some of the terrors they could run into. His whole body tensed as he thought back to the ambush, as he’d tried in vain to heal her from the phoenix’s explosion - as he cried over her limp body. His stomach seemed to swallow itself. It was impossible to know now what five percent could change, but if it had any chance to help make sure that he’d never have to look at an empty health bar for Ela again, then it was something he would treasure.

Clenching one fist into itself painfully, he made himself close those windows. The Gamer took a moment to remind himself of the happy morning he’d just had. They both survived… and they’d survive whatever else the Abyss was going to throw at them, too. At least, that was what he tried to convince himself of.

Swallowing lead again, he moved on to the final notification, trying to forget the previous day.

’Hmm… and that brings me back to the original problem.’

You wanted a quest, right?

“Heh, I suppose I did ask for it.” He chuckled, gulping his drink again, the harsh fizz burning down his throat as he swallowed too much at once. “Part of me really wanted something less open ended though.”

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